Dr. Yarom Polsky
Topic Area Leader
Dr. Eric Hoek
Deputy Topic Area LeadThe Challenge
The state-of-the-art paradigm for industrial and municipal scale desalination is a site-specific sequence of pretreatment, treatment, post-treatment, and residuals management processes. Nearly every project uses a customized design that draws from a large number of possible combinations of the currently available physical, chemical and biological processes. That paradigm was developed in an era of centralized desalination needs. Critical challenges related to process innovation include: a narrow operating range for current desalination technologies that results in system fragility and necessitates a range of expensive and energy-intensive pre- and post-treatment processes; a unit operations mindset that adds complexity and cost to systems; and labor intensive and sub-optimal operation of water treatment systems when variability of influent water conditions vary or subsystem issues are experienced.
Our Approach
This topic area advances two categories of research and development critical to advancing NAWI goals: (1) novel and intensified processes and (2) autonomous and adaptable water systems. The potential impacts of novel process concepts, component technologies and control methodologies for this topic area will be evaluated in the context of pipe parity metrics such as life-cycle energy demand, levelized cost of water and system reliability. Example target outcomes for this topic area include the following: (1) Novel technologies and processes that extend the operating range of treatment systems to reduce pre- and post-treatment steps, energy intensity, and cost of treatment trains; (2) Process-intensified methods that result in at least a 2× reduction in the cost of brine concentration and enable high recovery compared to current state of the art technologies; and (3) advances in water treatment system automation, process monitoring and process control that that enable closed-loop feedback control, optimized system performance, early detection and self-correction of system faults, adaptation to variable feedwater conditions, and reduced system operating, maintenance, and labor costs.
Projects
Project 5.02: Platform Process for Electrified Pretreatment; PI: David Jassby (University of California at Los Angeles)
This project team developed an experimental methodology that combines probing electrochemical reactions and surfaces at the atomic, nano, and micron scale using an array of characterization tools, and uses these observations/insights to better understand macro-scale (i.e., system-wide) electrochemical characterization methods.
Partners: Georgia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Project 5.03: Foundational Control Methods For Water Treatment Systems; PI: Kris Villez (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Partners: Baylor, Colorado School of Mines, Rockwell
Project 5.04: Computational Test Bed for Predictive Fouling Control; PI: Dan Miller (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
This project is developing computational models simulating feed flows and inorganic scaling in spiral-wound RO elements. The models seek to understand the formation and growth of scale and unsteady flow effects in the membrane module feed channel.
Partners: Colorado School of Mines, University of Texas at Austin
Project 5.05: CFD modeling and operando measurements of multiscale heat and mass transfer for membrane module customization; PI: Meagan Mauter (Stanford University)
This innovation can improve energy efficiency and reduce the risk of mineral scaling on membrane surfaces.
Partners: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Aqua membranes, Inc., Cascade Technologies, Inc
Project 5.06: Novel Electro-dialytic Crystallizer (EDC) for Energy Efficient Zero-liquid Discharge; PI: Shihong Lin (Vanderbilt)
This project pioneers the use of dimethyl ether (DME)-Driven Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) desalination potentially reducing ZLD costs 50% relative to state-of-the-art crystallizers.
Partners: Black & Veatch, Colorado State University
Project 5.07: Solvent-Driven Zero Liquid Discharge for Production of Synthetic Gypsum; PI: Aaron Wilson (Idaho National Laboratory)
This project pioneers the use of dimethyl ether (DME)-Driven Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) desalination potentially reducing ZLD costs 50% relative to state-of-the-art crystallizers.
Partners: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Trevi Systems, USG Corporation
Project 5.08: Advanced Process Controls – Autonomous Control and Optimization; PI: Kris Villez (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
This project will develop novel process control methods for water treatment facilities that enable operators to predict and adapt to impending process upsets and equipment failures to enable safe and reliable operations of desalination and water reuse facilities.
Partners: Baylor University, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado Springs Utilities, inCTRL Solutions, IntelliFlux Controls, Inc., Rockwell Automation
Project 5.09: Process Twins for Decision-Support and Dynamic Energy/Cost Prediction in Water Reuse Processes; PI: Diego Rosso (University of California at Irvine)
This project will develop physical and digital twins of desalination and related treatment processes operating in several water plants to enable operators to better understand the consequences of large deviations from normal operation.
Partners: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Orange County Water District, Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Glacier Technologies International, Inc., Brown and Caldwell, Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
Project 5.10: Analytics for Causal Analysis and Decision Support Models for Autonomous and Smart Water Treatment; PI: Prakash Rao (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
This project will push the frontier of artificial intelligence in water treatment operations by developing autonomous, adaptive, and co-learning water treatment and desalination systems enabled by fundamental process operation building blocks that predict the operational performance of such systems.
Partners: University of California at Los Angeles, California State University, San Bernardino
Project 5.11: Additive Manufacturing for Customized Membranes; PI: Jeff McCutcheon (University of Connecticut)
This project advances a breakthrough method for manufacturing thin-film composite membranes using Nano-scale 3D printing that will enable membranes to be created for specific separations needs at low cost.
Partners: The University of Texas at Austin, Argonne National Laboratory, NALA Systems, Inc., ZwitterCo, Inc., Vortex Engineering LLC
Project 5.12: Electromagnetic Field for Membrane Scaling Control; PI: Pei Xu (New Mexico State University)
This project will rigorously and systematically investigate electromagnetic fields (EMF) that have been shown to suppress the nucleation of “scale-forming” minerals in desalination systems.
Partners: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, New Mexico Produced Water Research Consortium, Flow-Tech Systems, LLC, EVUS, Inc., El Paso Water, Aqua Membranes Inc., NGL Energy Partners, LP
Project 5.13: Tailored Reductants for Selenium Removal in Iron Electrocoagulation; PI: Dan Giammar (Washington University in St. Louis )
This project will target selenium, a problematic naturally-occurring element that is not easily removed by reverse osmosis (RO), and can contaminate wastewater in many industrial applications, with a novel electrochemical method of particle removal called electrocoagulation.
Partners: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Electric Power Research Institute, WaterTectonics, Inc.
Project 5.14: Enabling Minimal Liquid Discharge Through a Modular, Flexible, and Electrified Pretreatment System; PI: David Jassby (University of California at Los Angeles)
This project will develop a combination electrochemical reactor based on electrocoagulation with an immersed filtration system to react and separate problematic contaminants in water in a single modular step prior to desalination.
Partners: Georgia Institute of Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electric Power Research Institute, Knoxville Utilities Board, WaterTectonics, Inc., Southern Company
Project 5.15: Electrocoagulation/electrooxidation to accelerate cost-effective potable water reuse; PI: Shankar Chellam (Texas A&M University)
This project will develop hybrid iron-iron and iron-carbon electrocoagulation/electro oxidation (EC/EO) systems for pretreating secondary wastewater effluent prior to microfiltration and desalination and improve log10 virus reduction and remove suspended particles in a single step.
Partners: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, WaterTectonics, Inc., KIT Professionals, Inc., Orange County Water District, CAP Water & Power International, Inc.
Project 5.16: Energy-efficient selective removal of metal ions from mining influenced waters (MIW) using H-bonded Organic-Inorganic Frameworks (HOIFs); PI: Nick Gurieff (Rio Tinto Services Inc.)
The H-Bonded Organic-Inorganic Frameworks technology will bring tremendous value into the treatment of nonconventional waters with reduced energy consumption, system complexity, and waste management costs while providing unmatched brine valorization and profit recovery. The precision separation and recovery of metals in acid mine drainage (AMD) waters may also expand the availability of critical materials and help alleviate dependency on metal supply chains for the U.S.
Partners: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Oklahoma, California Department of Water Resources (funding partner).
Project 5.17: Data-Driven Fault Detection and Process Control for Potable Reuse with Reverse Osmosis; PI: Andy Salveson (Carollo Engineers, Inc.)
This project will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to reduce energy and chemical use, improve operational support, increase treatment system uptime, and improve confidence in purified water quality.
Partners: Yokogawa Corporation of America, National Water Research Institute, U.S. Military Academy West Point, tntAnalysis, Las Vegas Municipal Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, West Basin Municipal Water District, Orange County Water District, Baylor University, California Department of Water Resources (funding partner)
Project 5.18: Multifunctional Membrane for Oxyanion Removal; PI: Baoxia Mi (University of California, Berkeley).
This project will generate a technology that enables the selective removal and recovery of metals/oxyanions from water, enabling the use of a non-traditional water source, significantly reducing the cost and energy of treatment, and valorizing compounds that would typically be considered waste.
Partners: Greeley and Hansen LLC, NTS Innovations Inc., California Department of Water Resources (funding partner).